Then Aunt Polly arose, and observed to the minister that, seeing as everything was so unsartin in wartime, he might as well kill two birds with one stone.
The missionary was too much troubled for a smile, but gravely performed the required ceremony which made Miss Polly Carter Mrs. Simon White, and placed that inestimable lady on the pinnacle of human felicity, even in that region of death and sorrow.
Two horses had been provided for Clark and his bride, and within half an hour after their marriage they were on their route to the mountains, over which half the inhabitants of the valley were wandering, houseless, wretched, and desolate, soul and body.
Aunt Polly, whose fears had entirely left her after she became Mrs. White, insisted upon supplying Jane with a warm shawl and a homespun dress, with a pillow-case full of biscuits, dried beef, and doughnuts. Indeed, that little ceremony had so completely opened her heart that she made no objections when the missionary proposed to fill a flour-bag with similar food, which he would place upon the back of General Washington, and himself convey to the mountains, for without such help he knew well that starvation must fall upon the unhappy fugitives.
A few hours after, the newly married couple and the missionary were deep in the Pocono Mountains—the young people flying for their lives, the minister eager to carry help to those who were ready to perish. It was after dark when they came upon the great body of fugitives, and oh! it was a terrible sight! More than a hundred women and children, with but one man to guide them, were struggling up the steep ascent of the hills, some pausing to look upon the valley they had left, which their burning homes made a wilderness of fire, others rushing wildly forward towards the gloomy swamp where so many were to perish, afraid to look behind them lest some savage might spring from the thicket and snatch the little children from their arms. Women, so young in widowhood that they could not yet realize their loneliness, would turn with vague hope to see if the beloved one was not following them into the wilderness. Old women, more helpless than the little ones, would toil up those steep ascents with uncomplaining patience.
Among the group came a mother carrying a lifeless infant in her arms, where it had died against her bosom. She could not stay behind long enough to dig a grave for the little one, and so folded the precious clay to her heart and toiled onward. These wretched women had fled from their burning homes without time for preparation; most of them were without food, and now the pangs of hunger gnawed away the little strength that terror had left to them. One by one the faint and the feeble dropped off and were left to perish. Children wandered away into the swampy grounds, and never came forth again. Old people sat down patiently on the rocks and fallen trees, and saw themselves abandoned without complaint.
As the missionary and his companions penetrated the mountains, they found these wretched beings perishing in their path. The minister raised them up, fed them from his stores of food, and let them ride, by turns, upon the horses, from which the young and strong dismounted.
When they came up with the main body, it had halted, for rest. The little ones were clamoring for food, while the widowed mothers had nothing but tears to give in answer to their cries.
Into this scene of misery the minister brought his horse, laden with food, and while the tears stood in his eyes, distributed it. This kindness gave life and hope to them all.
At midnight the whole company lay down to rest, and the sleep of exhaustion fell upon them. Then, in the stillness of the woods, rose a wail, the faint, faint voice of a human soul born in the midnight of the wilderness, amid tears and desolation. It was a mournful sound, the first cry of human innocence trembling along that track of human guilt. When the weary sleepers awoke, and prepared to move on, that pale mother folded this blessed sorrow to her bosom, and prepared to keep her place with the rest, but Jane gave up her horse to the sufferer, and toiled on, side by side with her young husband, made happy, almost for the first time in her life, by conferring help on others.